The women of Afghanistan, who have been held captive by the most misogynist and inhuman group in the history of our country, due to the 20-year betrayal and crimes of the US/NATO and their Afghan mercenaries, are living in cruelly odious times. The ongoing conditions proves that the world has once again completely forgotten them. On the eve of the International Women's Day, a large-scale campaign in support of Afghan women was expected around the world, but due to the Ukraine crisis and the conflict between the opposing militarist superpowers, the case of Afghanistan, and especially its women, has once again become completely indifferent.
The repression of women protesters, their captivity and the subsequent forced confession of several women indicates that the Taliban are extremely terrified of the power and political mobility of women and are trying to suffocate their justice-seeking actions by using any fascist and savage methods. But just as Afghan women have borne the brunt of over 40-year war and terror, therefore have a deep grudge against the perpetrators of barbarism and tyranny and will not easily succumb to the pressure, oppression and restraint of Taliban.
Field executions, stoning, beatings, the heart-rending humiliation of artists and musicians, violation of people's privacy and Khalqi-type house to house inspections, searching mobile phones and other electronic devices out in the open, medieval punishments such as shaving young people's heads solely for carrying the country's tricolor flag, hangings of the opponents under the names of “kidnappers” and “ISIL”, shooting youngsters for “crimes” such as listening to music, etc. have exposed all the naked fascism of the Taliban, showing that contrary to the statements of fraudsters and traitors and their Pakistani and Western masters, this Stone Age group has not made the slightest “change” and primarily, expecting a change from an army of suicide bombers is simply futile and self-deceiving. The Taliban, serving as a reserve force of the colonialists, have taken our nation captive and are imposing the most inhumane restrictions on our people with barbarism and the force of bayonets.
While the US and its allies have apparently imposed sanctions on the Taliban and do not seem to recognize them, but they are secretly seeking to strengthen and support them, trying to save their ridiculous “emirate” from collapsing by coming under the arms of their minions. Although the US and NATO have withdrawn their troops from Afghanistan, but their sinister games and interventions to turn Afghanistan into a center of terrorism continue in earnest, and over the past six months ISIL and other terrorist gangs have been freely reorganizing themselves.
All the pressure of the West is summed up in the formation of an “inclusive government”. By “inclusive” they mean placing a number of Fulbright graduate agents trusted by the US and NATO in the Taliban regime and that’s it, which will not bring the slightest change in the nature of their ignorant and oppressive system. We are now witnessing the inclusion of former corrupt figures such as Abdul Sattar Saadat, Nazir Kabiri, Latif Nazari and others, in the bloody “emirate” of the Taliban. At the same time, we should not forget the treacherous role and dangerous intentions of the fugitive jihadists and their savage intellectuals, who, in reference to the hated regime of Iran's “Welayat-e Faqeeh” beating on the drum of “separatism” and reawakened ethnicism, practically give the bloodthirsty Taliban a face. They are not fundamentally different from the Taliban and shamelessly struggle to seal a deal with these oppressors. The meetings of a number of hated jihadi leaders with their Pakistani master, the head of the ISI in Turkey, the meetings of Ahmad Massoud and Ismail Khan under the supervision of their “VAVAK” (Infamous intelligence agency of Iran) owners in Iran, etc. show the shameful compromises behind the scenes. The outcome of such collusions can be anything, except the weakening of the chains of imprisonment on the neck of our people.
For twenty years, the Western corporate media has decorated a handful of Afghan women serving the American and NATO invaders and used them as a cover for crimes, betrayals and the tragedy of women's rights in Afghanistan. Now that the United States and its allies, through the Taliban, want to carry out their subversive and terrorist plans and serve their regional strategy, they are once again recruiting the conscientious less women living in Europe, such as Diva Patang, to portray the “emirate” of suicide bombers as a national force. Fortunately, the vast majority of Afghans on social media hated her. Brave and courageous women must first of all draw a clear red line between themselves and the spy-trained enemy's and expel them from their ranks. Without disguising such despicable perverts, a roaring women's movement cannot rise.
While the ruling executioners seek to suppress the slightest public protest and liberation voices, Afghan women and all elements and forces defending democracy and anti-fundamentalism must learn from the revolutionary uprisings of other captive nations by adopting secretive mobilization tactics. They will not let the field remain for the Taliban terrorists. Those who are virtuous must be prepared to face any hardship, imprisonment and torture. Indomitability and resistance to the tradition of the revolutionary greats of Iran, Turkey and other countries from within the dreadful cells of the torture chambers, can lead to the success of the revolutionary movement and the strengthening of the militant spirit in society as a whole.
We believe that the fight against terrorism would be incomplete without the fight against imperialism and its ideologies. Forty years betrayal of the White House and its fundamentalist and non-fundamentalist mercenaries proved to Afghan people by experience that a homeland can’t be saved by relying on any external power and its puppets. Only with the slogan of death to fundamentalism and imperialism under the banner of secular democracy, can we overcome the catastrophic disaster and open the way to full political and economic independence, freedom and social justice. Afghan women must be at the forefront of this great struggle because they have shown in practice that they have the potential and the determination for such a great cause. While we do not expect the slightest from the warring Western governments and the rulers of the neighbors involved in Afghanistan, we call on the progressive forces, women's rights organizations, progressive figures and peace activists to side with the miserable women and people of Afghanistan and to disclose and condemn the interventions of their policy-makers.
Now that imperialist states and deadly arms traders have turned the planet into a gunpowder depot on the eve of another world war, it is the responsibility of every conscious human being to seek to revive the international anti-war and anti-imperialist movement. If especially the people of the great imperialist countries do not perform this task, the super-capitalists will lead the world to complete destruction of human future for their own benefit.
The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) believes that March 8 is the day to raise the call for justice and renew commitment to organizing a serious and united struggle of women to eradicate the roots of oppression and injustice in this patriarchal society. So let us not allow the reactionism and imperialism, by taking this day hostage, empty it of its combative content to the point of making a fuss and expressing false love to women in order to hide their misogynist nature behind it. Let us unite and put an end to gender oppression with progressive and radical demands.
Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)
March 8, 2022